We need your urban challenge!

Are you looking for innovative solutions to an urban challenge? Nordic Innovation invites you to be the foundation of this Nordic challenge competition.

Are you in the early stages of planning a challenging urban development project, related to financial, environmental or social issues?

The Nordic Built Cities Challenge is an open, multidisciplinary competition to develop solutions for Nordic urban challenges connected to a physical place - in a smart, livable and sustainable way.

The competition will be launched in early 2015, and we need urban challenges from all the Nordic countries, including Greenland, Faroe Island and Åland.

We are primarily looking for urban challenges related to urban spaces that need multidisciplinary and innovative solutions. We offer you financial support, and access to our innovation process and our international network of experts.

The Nordic Winner

The 5 winners of the Nordic Built Challenge

The 5 winners of the second stage will receive the opportunity for a consultancy agreement with the building owners to realize their project. In addition, they will be considered for the overall Nordic Built Challenge Award and a prize of NOK 1.000.000.

The 20 finalists of stage 1

These are the 20 finalists of the Nordic Built Challenge. The 4 finalists of each of the 5 competitions are now working on improving their projects further and 1 winner per competition will be announced in September 2013.
(Browse by country on the tabs with small flags.)

Iceland

Denmark

Finland

Sweden

Norway

Nordic Built Challenge explained

The aim of the Challenge was to encourage the development of sustainable building concepts in the Nordic region.

The Nordic Built Challenge, an open multidisciplinary design contest for the refurbishment of five specific buildings, was launched in late 2012. The objective of the competition was to encourage innovation and the development of sustainable, viable and scalable refurbishment concepts for some of the most common building types in the Nordic region.

According to the principles of the Nordic Built Charter competitors were encouraged to form multidisciplinary and Nordic/international teams.

Through the Nordic Built Challenge, Nordic Innovation invited innovators from within and beyond the building sector to compete with the aim to develop strong concepts for a sustainable built environment.

The challenge comprised five individual competitions - one in each Nordic country. The assignment was to demonstrate the principles of the Nordic Built Charter by refurbishing existing buildings in innovative and sustainable ways, while ensuring financial and practical viability.

The competitions were open for the whole value chain of the building sector.

Stage 1 of each competition was an open idea competition for general concepts and ideas, with a low barrier to entry and anonymous evaluation. 4 winners from each competition received NOK 300.000 and the opportunity to compete in stage 2. The second stage featured the 4 best entries from stage 1 in a negotiated project development phase with team composition requirements.

The best proposal for each building received the possibility of a consultancy contract with the building owner, and a final Nordic winner was awarded with NOK 1.000.000 for the best overall demonstration of the Nordic Built Charter.

In reference to principle seven of the Nordic Built Charter, the five competitions of the Nordic Built Challenge were adapted to local conditions. Because of variations in the buildings, owners, users and national regulations, the competition rules varied slightly from competition to competition.